I’m not feeling well today, so I will leave this for now and hopefully others will answer The answers are going to be fairly long. Just a reminder to everyone that this is for set up in the UK, so suggested devices have to be available there.
Tagging @anon36505037 to help with answers on your option two.
As far as option three, you could try a zwave or Wi-Fi lightbulb instead. I know domitec, Aeon Labs, and Zipato have Z wave bulbs on the UK frequency
LIFX are Wi-Fi bulbs available in both the US and UK that come in a number of different forms. But they tend to be bigger than The others and may not fit all fittings.
So that’s just another possibility. It would be cheaper to get a Hue bridge, though, if you have a lot of bulbs.
As far as others UK zigbee brands, I know the hive bulbs will work with SmartThings, but I haven’t heard one way or the other how they do as repeaters. There is more about them in the following thread:
